Earlier today I received a great question from a customer that I thought would be helpful to you as well. She is a customer of the Client Getting P.L.A.N. but her question is common among any consultant or solopreneur that has made even just one sales call via the phone.
Hi Drew,
I got a bank to speak to me and show interest in doing a Lunch-and-Learn. Here is my question.. He wants me to send him “more” information. What do you suggest I email to him? I now have a page on my website for Lunch and Learn, maybe just send him there?
Thanks, Patti
My response below may surprise you a little bit. But its important to understand that when someone asks you to send them something in the mail nine times out of town it is a nice way to blow you off!
When we send something in the mail we immediately lose control of the situation and its vital for us to maintain control for as long as possible. With that in mind, here’s my response…
Hi Patti,
Yes I would send him to your website. Do you have a video on it with you explaining the benefits and value of providing L&Ls? If not make sure you include the reasons why he should want you to do an L&L for his customers.
Unfortunately, in my experience, when someone asks to be sent information it is a kind “blow off”.
Instead of agreeing to send it to him, next time you can say something like, “Instead of sending it do you mind if I bring it by personally?” Or “Instead of mailing it do you have 5-minutes now and I can show you a private webpage that explains everything?” The key is to actually get him the information where you still have control.
If he gives you any resistance you can say what I say which is… “Mr. ____ can I be honest with you about something?” Of course they always say yes. Then I say, “Almost 100% of the time when someone asks me to mail them the information it is simply a nice way of blowing me off.” Then I laugh a little bit and say, “Is that happening here? Its okay to be honest with me.”
Then regardless of how they answer you can re-emphasize the value and benefits of these lunch and learn presentations. And explain how it would be best to meet in person, even for 15-minutes, so you can explain it further and answer questions. Or you can schedule dedicated time on the phone to take him to a web page and go through the details.
Hope this helps.
This is a “Sales Hack” that most people won’t use because they don’t have the guts to basically call someone out when they are trying to blow us off. But if you do it in a professional way it actually will help you build the relationship because you’re being upfront and honest and you’re asking them to do the same.
No one like to waste time. Eliminate that by being straight with them and ask them to be straight with you!
Having done face to face selling for sometime I would have no compunction whatsoever at proffering that response to a what my gut is telling me is an obvious blow off. And why?
Because you should’t feel bad for saying this to a prospect when they have shown little or no respect for your time.
By failing to be honest or just say no I’m not interested, they have instead, insulted you by saying “oh send me info about…”
They are silently saying “your time and whatever it is you have to offer is not valuable ” so rather than being respectful and stop any further proceedings, I’ll lead you on (when I don’t intend to do business with you) and waste your time with fruitless follow up efforts anyway.
And that’s why you have nothing to feel bad about – The onus is on them and for their total self absorbed inconsideration, a response like that is not only appropriate but I encourage all those engaged in this discipline to use it wherever an whenever a “blow off” is detected.
Serve me a blow off and you can bet, I going to return the serve!
Great feedback Brya! Thanks for sharing.
Great post Drew! Will remember that and share with my salesperson too.
Another great script in the “blow off” category for email is this:
Mr. Client, I have not heard back from you regarding X. If you decided to go another direction or felt it was not a fit for you that is okay. Believe me you own’t hurt my feelings. I just want to know how to proceed.
Cannot tell you how well this works to get a response. Try it, you’ll see.
Cheers!
Great stuff!! Thanks for sharing your email “blow off” strategy.
Good Post. This does work; have used it a few times. Its important to do this in such a way as to not make the other person wrong for saying ‘pop it in the mail’, as they might be flustered into a meeting which they ain’t gonna buy at, just to prove they weren’t trying to avoid a meeting.
I’ve used “Sometimes ‘Would you put it in the post’ is a very nice way of saying either ‘I might not be looking at doing this for a good few months yet’, or ‘possibly not at all’ but I don’t want to be impolite.” So giving a positive reason for them doing it – ‘I don’t want to be impolite’ – makes it easy for them to own up to, I think.
Sometimes its also about price; you can offer to put it in the post ‘ but actually, give me a couple more days as I’m / We are working on something which could mean we can offer a slightly better deal but isn’t quite tied up yet so I didn’t want to mention it until it was but keep it as a good surprise – but let me see if I can come back to you when that’s sorted out’.
If it is about price you’ll usually get a reaction. Which you can talk through and you’ve made an advance.
That also gives you a couple of days to figure out what that ‘something’ was and also to try a couple of price points or different service / product bundles to make the deal more attractive.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Rob! Indeed, in some cases people are being “polite” by blowing you off. I prefer to give them permission to be impolite so-to-speak and tell me that they’re not interested or whatever.
My process includes at the beginning a set of expectations that state clearly that “yes” is okay, “no” is okay but “I need to think about it” is not okay. Granted that may not fit in this situation but its a good rule to live by because you eliminate tire kickers that will waste your time and you close more deals much quicker.
I don’t agree with the, ‘don’t piss them off’ approach. If they’re really yanking your chain then….what do you care whether you piss them off. If you’ve really got a product or service with value in the general market, then you should have plenty of other suspects AND your time should also be very valuable.
Around the issue of time is where I think one’s proper response to this bander guy should be. But before I get to that I have another question: Didn’t the original poster say that the banker ‘asked’ him/her…i.e. proactively?
If so, then in my mind that implies that the ‘suit’ is looking for something. That’s the issue. So….the consultant (i.e. the person selling) needs to ‘smoke out’ what it is the ‘suit’ is looking for with a question along the line of, “Well….maybe I can but what is it exactly you’re looking for? I mean…… what kind of problem are you looking for help solving now?”
Then, presuming this consultant has a good website, I would just refer them to the website with something like, “Ahhh…yeah… I get it. Well, …..here’s my business card, Mr. Suit. You’ll be happy to know that that particular info on my website and you won’t be surprised to know that I put it on there because I get that question all the time. So………since I realize that everybody’s NOT not a match for my services, and I’m NOT cheap either and since I always have a busy schedule anyway… having the info on my site just saves everybody time. So why don’t you just take a look at that first and then give me a call and tell me what the next step is…. OK? (big smile right in their eye!)
The point is…… you can politely refuse to take their put-off shit…. and it’s even fun…….especially from bankers. They’re used to ‘banking’ on their titles and also on the fact that bankers USED TO actually provide a real service to society. The real battle here is one of posture.
Thanks for your input Art. I always felt its best to be professional because you never know how deep someone is connected. Meaning if you piss them off bad enough and they go off and tell enough people in your local area your reputation will suffer. And that’s not a good thing. So personally, I do care if I piss them off. I choose professionalism and not a “bulldog” approach.
I totally agree with you Drew